On-going
series: Crisis in the Caucasus - 2008
The Russian / Georgian Conflict and Its Impact on AzerbaijanWindow on Eurasia: Original
Blog Article

Vienna, November 3 - A youth
group of the Kremlin's Unitedx Russia Party now openly backs
xenophobic ideas that its own leaders only a few months ago had
decried as nationalist or even fascist, a reflection of disturbing
trends among Russian young people and in the ruling party of
the Russian government itself.

On Saturday, approximately
30 activists of the Young Guard of United Russia staged a demonstration
in front of the Moscow offices of the Federal Migration Service
(FMS), demanding that the service reduce or even eliminate altogether
rather than double as the FMS has announced the quota for labor
migrants http://www.nr2.ru/moskow/204326.html

The Young Guardists, the New
Region news agency's Denis Frunze pointed out, "who until
recently had accused their opponents from the Movement Against
Illegal Immigration (DPNI) of nationalism or even fascism conducted
[on Saturday] actions in several Russian cities under slogans
that completely coincide with the demands of the Russian nationalists."

"We consider," one
of their leaders told the journalist, "that at a time of
economic crisis, illegal migrants are occupying workplaces which
Russian workers, many of whom now find themselves in difficulties,
ought to occupy." That is especially true, Masha Sergeyev
said, "in the construction business."

The demonstrators, Frunze noted,
carried signs featuring railroad tickets with the slogan "go
home," symbolizing their desire that the Russian authorities
either move to prevent illegal migrants from coming into the
country at all or resolve to send those already here back to
their homelands.

Sergeyev insisted that these
demonstrations have "nothing in common" with the DPNI's
Russian March scheduled for tomorrow. "Unlike them,"
he said, we are not calling for any pogroms. We are pushing for
a legal initiative to lower the quotas of labor migrants and
expose the companies which use an illegal foreign labor force."

Another Young Guard leader added
that "we have never and will never seek to ignite xenophobia
and hatred in our society-be it on the basis of nationality or
any other characteristic." Unlike DPNI, he continued, the
Young Guard does not consist of "marginals" but of
"politicians working legally to lobby on behalf of the interests
of the majority of citizens of Russia."

But the two groups are not comfortable
with each other: Fearful of provocations, the Young Guards tried
to keep the DPNI away. http://kontury.info/news/2008-11-01-433
The relationship between the Young Guards and their parent organization,
United Russia, is complicated. http://www.anticompromat.ru/molodayagv/molgv_spr.html
In advance of the protests, spokesmen for the latter said that
calls for the expulsion of gastarbeiters were "excessively
radical" but otherwise backed the Young Guards.

At a time of economic crisis,
Andrei Vorobyev, who heads the central executive committee of
Kremlin's United Russia Party, "we consider it wise to reduce
quotas for migrant workers" so that Russian workers can
get jobs."

At one level of course, this
is simply good populist politics at a time when many face economic
hardships. But the actions of the Young Guard, and the failure
of United Russia to condemn them in a more thorough-going fashion
point to a danger many do not want to face: the possible linking
up of populism and xenophobia that could give rise to fascism.

At present, that is precisely
what DPNI and the organizers of tomorrow's Russian March appear
to be hoping for. Fortunately, it is still something United Russia
and the Young Guard feel compelled to denounce. But it is also
something that by their own actions and statements, these two
Kremlin-backed organizations have made a great deal more likely.